book (design) stories

from new typography
to swiss style

modernist book design in germany and switzerland 1925–1965 (and beyond)

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this collection is about modernist typographic
design in german-language books from 1925 to 1965 (and
beyond). why start in 1925? in october
1925 the german printers' trade magazine "typographische
mitteilungen" published a special issue
entitled "elementare typographie" (elemental typography),
containing manifestos by jan/iwan tschichold, el lissitzky, laszlo moholy-nagy,
and others (read story 544).

in the same year tschichold designed his first modernist
book for the büchergilde
gutenberg (see story 28). these avant-garde
typographers created a new "functionalist" style that was
influenced by modern architecture and abstract art – especially
russian constructivism and dutch de
stijl –, and adopted elements of experimental futurist and
dada typography. books were no longer to be old-fashioned,
leather-bound status symbols for the middle and upper classes, but have
a modern, dynamic, machine-age look – which
meant: asymmetric layout, no-frills typefaces such as sans-serifs, and
"objective" photographs or photomontages.

in the following years, innovative schools such as the bauhaus in dessau
or the meisterschule für deutschlands buchdrucker
in munich – and books like tschichold's seminal "die
neue typographie" (see story 29) – had
a significant influence on book design in germany. this movement came
to an abrupt end in 1933 when hitler seized power: the nazis denounced
modernist culture as "anti-germanic" and "jewish-marxist" (see
story 1).
many leading artists, designers, and publishers
left the country. between 1933 and 1945 it was mainly
in switzerland (and a few other independent countries) that modernist
german-language books could be published.

jan tschichold played a central role in establishing a new typographic
culture in germany and switzerland. in 1933 he emigrated
to the swiss town of basel, where he published another influential
book in 1935 (see story 30).
though tschichold himself soon changed to a neo-traditional
typographic style a new generation of swiss graphic artists
continued to work in the modernist tradition – among them richard
paul lohse and max bill who both were prolific book designers.

by the
1940s they started to develop what later became known as "swiss
typography" – a clean, "engineered" style
based on the new typography of the 1920s.
in designing books – typically non-fiction, illustrated
books on architecture, technology, science,
society or modern art – they employed sans-serif
typefaces, asymmetric layout, and a systematic grid for organising
pictures and (often multi-language) text on a page. the grid layout
is perhaps the most "genuinely swiss" contribution
to modern typographic design.

by the 1950s, swiss new graphic design had
gained an international reputation –
e.g. in germany where max bill became
the first director of the influential hfg ulm design school (see
story 3).
swiss designers such as karl gerstner, josef müller-brockmann,
emil ruder, armin hofmann, and others became more widely known – also
for some of their books.

by the mid-1960s the "purist" swiss
new graphic design movement had passed its zenith,
and by the 1970s post-modern pluralism/eclecticism started to gain
momentum. however, the modernist tradition lives on, as a style among
others – also
in book design (see story 106).

on this website you will find many descriptions and photographs of
books
– though, with a few exceptions, only german-language books.
i suggest you start browsing the index.